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Living with his wife, Caroline, and their three children, Alex, Kenny, and Megan, in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, during the early 1980s recession, Jack Butler and his two friends, Larry and Stan, lose their engineering jobs at the Ford Motor Company. Caroline, having been a housewife for years, utilizes her college education and prior experience working in advertising prior to having children to re-enter the workforce, leaving Jack to deal with new and bewildering responsibilities as a stay at home dad.

Jack discovers that childcare and house maintenance is a complex juggling act and his initial struggles in daily errands gains the attention and company of other neighborhood housewives. Eventually, he hits his stride and although somewhat distracted by the flirtatious Joan (a neighbor and friend of Caroline's), as well as the banal, senseless plot-lines of daytime soap operas, he begins to feel confined by domestic life. Simultaneously, he feels threatened by Caroline's responsibilities and work-life as a fast climbing ad executive.

Meanwhile, Caroline contends with her own challenges in the workforce: her maternal and housekeeping instincts at times jeopardize her position as a sophisticated executive; her boss, the wealthy head of the agency is intent on having his way with her, all the while being in contention with an increasingly jealous husband. However during a tense agency pitch to a hard-to-please key client, her insight as a budget-conscious house wife proves to be invaluable. The client's president wants her to fly to Los Angeles to help shoot a commercial and in the meantime, Jack's former employer invites him to interview for his old job, but his former boss, Jinx Latham, betrayed his reputation. He lectures them on dirty practices and storms out. The neighborhood housewives surprise him and he finds himself accompanying them to a strip club (with male strippers). He and Caroline find themselves fending off the lascivious advances of others. Her boss, Ron Richardson, tries to convince her to leave Jack and marry him, while Joan continues to try and seduce him. After a successful commercial shoot in Los Angeles, Caroline relaxes in her hotel bathtub. Ron sneaks into her room with champagne. Back home, Jack tries calling her so the kids can talk to her, but Ron answers. He hangs up, leading Jack to think she is having an affair with him. She fends off his attempts and quits her job.

The next day dawns with repair people in the home to fix a broken television and spray for bugs. Joan stops by, and while Jack is in the bathroom, she makes herself at home in their bedroom. Realizing that she wants to sleep with him, he begins running reasons he should not have an affair with her. Caroline arrives home unexpectedly, surprising Joan on the bed, and after a confrontation, she leaves. Caroline takes her place on the bed. Jack, not realizing she is home, comes back to the bedroom. They talk over the misunderstandings that occurred concerning Ron's and Joan's advances and reunite as a stronger couple. Ron stops by, begging Caroline to come back to his company, as the client thinks that only she can properly handle his account. However, she has missed spending time with her children. Jinx also comes begging for Jack to return to work. He had made too many cuts in his design team and is now in danger of losing his job. Alex says something to his father while Jinx is talking and he yells at him, at which point he punches him in the face. He accepts his old job on the condition that Larry and Stan join him. On the newly repaired TV, viewers see the commercial Caroline helped produce.

While working at Motown Productions, story editor and struggling producer Lauren Shuler read an article on National Lampoon written by John Hughes, and decided to keep in touch with him. One day Hughes told Shuler about a disastrous experience he had looking after his two children in the absence of his wife, which Shuler found hilarious. After asking if that could make a good movie, she replied that "it sure sounds funny to me". Hughes wrote the film, and flew to Los Angeles to rewrite the script with Shuler. As Hughes had a TV deal with Aaron Spelling, he brought him in as an executive producer. Then the studio executives at Universal Studios were upset that Hughes was working in Chicago instead of Los Angeles, fired him and brought a group of TV writers to remake his script. Then the studio decided to turn it into a feature film instead of a television movie. Shuler, who remained as a producer, declared that while she liked the final product she thought Hughes' original script was better.[1] While Shuler talked to her agent friend Laurie Perlman, Perlman told about "this guy who is really funny" who she represented, Michael Keaton. After meeting Keaton and seeing his screen debut, Night Shift (1982), Shuler decided to send the actor the script of Mr. Mom.[2]

The film received mixed to positive reviews upon its 1983 release. Leonard Maltin gave it 2.5 stars out of 4, stating "pleasant enough rehash of age-old sitcom premise," adding "likable stars make it palatable, but you've seen it all before."[3] It went on to receive generally positive reviews and is currently regarded by many to be one of the best ones of 1983. It has 84% on Rotten Tomatoes.[4]

The film opened to limited release on July 22, 1983, with $947,197, earning the number 13 spot that weekend.[5] Upon its wide release on August 19, 1983, a month later, it opened number 3 with $4,279,384 behind Easy Money‍ '​s opening weekend and Risky Business‍ '​ third.[6] It ended up with $64 million domestically,[7] and its success led Universal to sign a three-picture deal with Hughes for $30 million.[8]